Third
by Nekocin
Summary: [AU, series of drabbles] Side drabbles related to Hear the Beating
1. Ice Paradise

**Title:** Ice Paradise  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Type:** One-shot, Alternative Universe, Drabble  
**Words:** 376  
**Warnings:** OoC, cliches, fluff  
**Pairings:** Mild Lacus+Kira  
**Additional notes:** HETero, side-fic to "**Hear the Beating**"  
**Dedicated to: moi **(because you asked for some side-stuff and I couldn't get your request out of my head while I'm brainstorming for the new chapter of "Hear the Beating" **:3** Hope you like it... if not, I'll try better next time)  
**Disclaimer: Gundam Seed** doesn't belong to me.   
**Summary:** Lacus gives Kira a taste of her self-made ice cream.

* * *

Her eyes shimmer expectantly as she watches him take his first bite, slipping the spoon filled with the soft, cold substance into his mouth.  
It has been her first try making ice cream, that is, and hopefully, it will taste as good as it looks.

She has done her best following the guide book's instructions and tried to be a bit creative too; like using chocolate chips instead of plain mocha, mixing it with walnuts and exotic mango flavor.

She has put her heart into it just like Cagalli has suggested some time ago (if Lacus ever wanted to confess without attempting foreplay- or whatever Cagalli means).  
She has paid extra attention to the frosting stage. She has even worn the cute soft pink apron she had bought the other day just for the special occasion.

"It's a bit bland," he comments at last.

_Bland?_ Her hopeful look crumbles. _It's bland?_

"It's as if someone has messed up the frosting, making it taste a bit like frosted yogurt or something like that," he continues thoughtfully as he scoops up another spoonful of ice cream from the bowl, extended the spoon to her lips and silently offering to test it herself.

She blinks in surprise and obediently opens her mouth to accept the spoon.

He pulls it slowly out of her mouth.

It... didn't taste as bad as she has thought it would be... in a matter of fact, she could have given this a three-and-a-half on a scale of one to five.

"And?" Kira asks, looking down at her with curious eyes.

"It was all ri-," she stops abruptly when she notices that he is having a hard time keeping a straight face—putting two and two together-

Her eyes instantly widen, realization dawning upon them.  
"KIRA!" She accuses, but did not have the heart to squash the feeling that threatens to make her smile.

"You're the one who made this, am I right?" he chuckles softly. "Thank you. Thank you for going through the trouble to make this for me,"

Her cheeks redden immediately, when he looks down at her with the most earnest eyes—she then feels the flush deepen, when she realizes something very important.__

Oh dear... we just shared an indirect kiss. _  
_  
**END**

TheNekoTalks:

Finally! After breaking my writer's block for most of the part, I've finally gotten the inspiration to continue writing **:cries buckets of water:** I apologize for being away way too long. 

_GYAH! Too much fluff and it's too... corny.  
_The guidebook is called "**Ice Paradise**", hence the title. It's really a book filled with recipes on how to make creative ice cream.

**Thank you for taking your time reading this! I apologize, moi, it didn't came out like you probably want it would be.**

.:Nekocin:. 


	2. Annoying Habit

**Title:** Annoying Habit  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Type:** One-shot, Alternative Universe  
**Words: **547 **  
Genres: **General, Mild Humor  
**Warnings:** OoC, cliche, fluff  
**Pairings:** None  
**Additional notes: **side-fic to** "Hear the Beating"  
Dedicated to: "Hear the Beating" reviewers! (Love you!)  
Disclaimer: Gundam Seed** doesn't belong to me. Mentioned anime series do not belong to me either.  
**Author's notes:** **:cries:** Such a stupid, over-used plot bunny! **:cries: **  
**Summary:** In order to allow Lacus confessing to her brother, Cagalli is _**generous**_ enough to watch Athrun and is stuck with him and his annoying habit.

* * *

The show has barely started when-

_Click!  
_  
-the channel is changed

She twitches.

-----

_"While I was away you didn't cheat on me, did you, 'Gure-san?" A flowery background intensifies the innuendo. Are they really together one might think._

"I wouldn't do that when I have a man like you," It would seem like there's something hidden behind those words-

"Yosh!" -until both characters give each other a thumbs-up, startling everyone. "Wha?"  
  
----

_Click!  
_  
She twitches again, unconsciously shaking in anger directed at the person sitting on the couch next to hers.  
He, however, is completely oblivious of it and lets out a bored sigh before clicking away.

----

_"-destroy you with my strongest attack! PEGASUS REISEIKE-!" Some guy in strange armor shouts out and punched forwar-  
_  
----

_Click!_

She could hear her teeth gnashing--_  
_  
----

_"Ne, did you get your grip right this time?" the little boy smirks cockily._

'That little punk!' runs through the opponent's mind and makes an ugly face as he prepares his serve-  
  
----

_Click!  
_  
The book, which she's trying to finish, starts shaking.

----

_"Bibi-kun," the dark-haired boy smirks._

"-TEME, SASUKE!" the blonde kid screams, but the other just smirks arrogantly before continuing his way.

----

_Click!_

GRRR...oh, god, she's growling now._  
_  
----

_"I'm—cadet Rafiru, your highness," the girl with the pointy ears introduces herself monotonously._

"A-ah, Rafiru—just call me Jinto,"

----

_Click!  
_  
She could hear steam coming out of her ears...

----

_"—I know exactly who did this! The culprit is—YOU!" the unconscious detective 'murmurs' and the little boy holding his voice-changing bowtie pushes the limp arm--making it look as if the unconscious detective is pointing to the culprit._

----

_Click!_

_CR-ACK!  
_  
She snaps her pencil into two pieces and shoots a glare at the bored-looking guy sitting next to her.

"That's it, Zala! You're going down!" she shouts.

Her companion gives her a bewildered look. "Wha-?"

She lets out a war cry, pounces the surprised guy and wrestles the remote control from the other's grasp for a good twenty seconds, before hitting a random button of a channel.  
"Stick with one channel!" she orders, huffing.

"What's your problem?" Athrun wheezes out, his appearance looking all rumpled. It's a wonder he's made it alive after their wrestling match, though not completely unscathed.

She glares at him, still trying to catch her breath and turns back to the book, which she's been unsuccessfully trying to analyze for the last 3 hours. Why oh why has she been so considerate enough to keep Athrun busy while Lacus confesses to Kira?

Throwing one last glare at the flustered guy, she slides down back to her seat and resumes her work.

----

A half hour later, Cagalli breaks her second pencil. It is clear that Athrun Zala does not know the consequences of annoying her. An indescribable feeling of rage bubbles up in her chest.

She, although not a real follower of showing anger through certain actions, realizes that maybe committing homicide might not be such a bad idea. She could do it without hesitation and hide the body somewhere—Miriallia could help her hide it.

An evil glint appears in her eyes, when she finally raises them to regard Athrun predatorily—  
-he wouldn't even know what hit him.

**END?**

TheNekoTalks:  
  
Here's the list of anime series of which quotes I'd used:  
- "**Fruits Basket**" (AKA "**Furuba**") quoted from Souma Ayame and Souma Shigure. ("Yosh!" means something "Good! (Job well done)" or "All right!")  
- "**Saint Seiya - The Poseidon series**" quoted from Pegasus Seiya. ("Pegasus Reiseiken!" means "Pegasus Meteor Fist")  
- "**Prince of Tennis**" (AKA "**Tennis no Oujisama**") quoted from Echizen Ryoma and some guy whose name I did not bother to remember since he's a minor character.  
- "**Naruto**" quoted from Naruto. ("Teme!" means "You" (bastard) in a rude speech. "Bibi-kun" something like "scared-y cat")  
- "**Banner of Stars**" (AKA "**Seikai no Senki**") quoted from Rafiru and Jinto  
- "**Detective Conan**" (AKA "**Meitantei Conan**" or "**Case Closed**") quoted from Conan (using Detective Mouri)

**:bangs head on keyboard:** This is not supposed to be so weird! I wanted to write a cute Athrun+Cagalli one-shot, but _Nuoooo! _all I get is this short and pointless drabble.

**Thank you for taking your time reading this!**

.:Nekocin:.


	3. Idiots

**Title:** Idiots  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Type:** One-shot, Alternative Universe  
**Words:** 659  
**Genres:** General, Mild Humor  
**Warnings:** OoC, none  
**Pairings:** mild Dearka+Miriallia  
**Additional notes:** side-fic to "**Hear the Beating**", Yzak's PoV  
**Dedicated to: "Hear the Beating" reviewers! (Love you!)  
Disclaimer: Gundam Seed** doesn't belong to me.  
**Author's notes**: I couldn't think of a nicer title for this Yzak-drabble, so please excuse my bad titles.  
**Summary: **Yzak watches both Dearka and Miriallia from the sidelines and takes his conclusions.

* * *

There they go again, making goo-goo eyes at each other when they assume that the other one isn't looking. Dearka makes them first, turns away abruptly, missing the eyes that the girl is giving him, before she herself turns away and missing Dearka's own.

They continue this routine until either one of them yield—usually ending up with Dearka making up an excuse to help at the back and if not, with that girl running away, looking guilty and embarrassed.

In the beginning it is really amusing to see them both do things like that—

They would do silly stuff whenever they are within the mere 3 feet radius of one another's spaces; like for example, in Dearka's case, giving sparkly smiles (with the result of getting weird looks from the girl), making stupid jokes (which aren't even funny in his opinion, but the girl seems to like it) and afterwards grinning like an idiot when he got the girl—chuckling, or at least smiling.

And what about in the girl's case? She would randomly drop her napkins (by accident) whenever his friend Dearka (coincidentally) passes, give him a cold shoulder on certain times (and making him lag behind like a kicked puppy) and afterwards, granting said friend a small mysterious quirk of a smile whenever he tries to cheer her up.

Which brings him back to -in the beginning, it is really amusing to see them do things like that. Now, it is getting on his nerves. Those longing looks they send each other whenever they do stupid things are really annoying him now—and what is worse, those two aren't even aware of their actions!

How can two intelligent people (assuming the girl is smart herself) act so unintelligent at the same time?

It is like seeing Dearka repeatedly back his head against his desk for no reason! Dearka is probably the worst of the two, because..., well, he is his best friend, right? Yzak Joule is never one to make friends with idiots, so it's rather an insult for some reason that his _-Best-_ friend is acting so—out of character.

He refuses to acknowledge the possibility that his friend likes that girl--really, how can Dearka, the one he knows best, like a girl whom Dearka has barely spoken to, aside from the joking and the occasional polite greetings? (Hmmm, the girl doesn't look so bad herself. She _-is-_ considered cute, after all. BUT that doesn't really mean that Dearka could go act all stupid in front of every pretty girl who steps into the parlor!)

Never in his entire life has he come across such a situation--liking a girl whom one barely knows.  
The possibility of Dearka hanging out with said girl after his shift hasn't crossed his mind until now—Dearka did mention that he and the girl take the same 11 PM bus home—

-perhaps that's how Dearka starts liking that girl. Well, whatever—he still thinks it is annoying to see his friend looking and acting like a lovesick fool.

He grumbles something incoherently, glowering at Dearka as the latter starts exchanging another round of looks with that girl, and viciously slurps the remaining Special Sundae through the straw.

**_!  
_**  
He immediately regrets doing it and cradles his head in a poor attempt of warding off the pain. His brain has just received a below-zero-degree shock of cold.

* * *

"Yzak, what's wrong?" Dearka asks worriedly and pries his hands away.

"Ugh-" is all he could mutter as he grits his teeth and squints his eyes.

"I told you not to eat your Sundae so quickly. You can be such a hog, Yzak," Through his squinting eyes, he could see Dearka's amused face. He scowls and goes back to cradling his head.

"Shut up, you. Go back to your staring contest with your girl!" He retorts, still cradling his head. With some satisfaction, he watches Dearka's face go red. The idiot.

**END**

TheNekoTalks:

:lol: I'm not sure what to say about this... it's just so amusing and it has some spoilers to the upcoming chapters for "**Hear the Beating**". I deliberately didn't write Miriallia's name, because I am actually assuming you have read "**Hear the Beating**", right? Which means Yzak hasn't really met Miriallia formally yet.  
I apologize for the extreme Out of Character-ness.

**Thank you for taking your time reading this!**

.:Nekocin:.


	4. Moment

**Title:** Moment  
**Author:** Nekocin  
**Type:** one part of 2 (3?) parts (?)  
**Words:** 499 (with translation), 482 (without the translation)  
**Genres:** Mild Romance  
**Pairings:** mild Andrew+Aisha**  
Disclaimer**: see previous drabbles.  
**Author's notes:** There's so very few written fics for this pairing. I mean even though Aisha didn't get much spotlight in the series, her relationship with Andrew is very interesting to explore because they don't have a lot of boundaries like the AC or KL or DM pairings have.  
**Summary:** The first time Andrew Waltfeld met Aisha is the first time he loses his sense of reality.

* * *

He wasn't someone who cares about trivial things when turning on the radio. Trivial things like listening to music all day to release stress, or wondering which new song has made it to the top 5, or who is the new in the music world and the likes.

He rather listens to the morning news, concerning national politics, the dropping or rising of economic statistics, or the international happenings like Middle East wars, the crowning of a new king, the results of presidential elections in other countries etcetera.

It isn't because he is being picky about which station to listen to (he isn't picky kind of person), and it also isn't because he is acting like a grumpy old man with no entertainment preferences (really, twenty-nine is hardly considered old age).

Hearing the local news and knowing what's going on outside the country is just more interesting than listening to some journalist yapping about the music world! With the information he hears, he feels he will never lose his sense of reality.

He is a Realist after all.

That was until he had met _HER_ at a Spanish-speaking bar called '**_Momento_**', which he usually visits on Saturday nights (the bar wasn't that crowded on these nights).

She had been the replacement tending the bar counter that night and didn't seem to have any problems with the foreign language for her first night, when he himself had to take Spanish classes for three months in order to understand whatever the staff were talking about!

"Buenas noches, señor. ¿Cómo está ústed?" were the first words she had spoken politely to him.

He suddenly felt flattered that it seemed as if a lump had grown within his throat, effectively reducing him into a nervous, lovesick teenager.

He had never heard anyone speak with such a beautiful voice before. It was soft with hidden strength, felt almost sweet but not really that sweet like—mango or something, and somehow reminds him of the feeling when one hugs one's favorite, fluffy pillow...

"¿Señor?" Again that voice.

He had snapped out of his dazed thoughts, blinked and got a good look of the bartender.

There was something very captivating about her dark eyes as the bar's disco rainbow lighting was reflected within those irises. Had they been deep purple? Midnight blue? Black? He couldn't place the color.

A slow and polite smile had tugged his lips, slicing the moment of captivation and sudden tension into pieces.

"Maragarita con limón, por favor,"

She sent him an unsure smile but nodded understandingly, and went to find his drink among the many bottles of liquor on display, behind her.

He later found out not only was she the replacement bartender, but was the rising star of **_Momento_**'s entertainment shows as well.

That night, he had his first taste of what laid across his sense of reality.  
_The illusion within his heart.  
_  
**Tsuzuku ka? (To be continued?)**

**TheNekoTalks:  
**  
My Spanish is a bit rusty. It had been a required subject when I was in Junior High and when I was a junior in Senior High. I hope the required accents and tildes are on their rightful places.

I'm quite proud of this drabble—because it has Andrew and Aisha in it! They need some love too even if for a bit, right? (Next time I'll try Mwu and Murrue)

I'd just noticed I keep writing "**_HtB_**" ("Hear the Beating") side-drabbles in a non-chronological order, so please forgive me for the time switches.

**Thank you for taking your time reading this!  
**  
**.:Nekocin:.**


End file.
